americano

Thank you, wherever you came from, 
general infantry gone over the pond,
finder of love and bloody brotherhood.

You wanted a larger coffee and they
laughed and added hot water to 
the stuff in the little cup.

Perhaps in
a wine glass
at first.

You still got that tiny spoon
that you laughed at, like a 
second person at a first. 

And you drank enough of it
to get annoyed when someone talked
about language, yours or other.

Just add water has a little bit
to add: water starts the process,
and water finishes, a procession.

Were you a ceramic Parisian? 
Were your machines
powered by gas?

Did you drink this stuff
at night? Did it sober you
up the way it did in Dubuque? 

I feel as if we are friends, even
though the twentieth century,
almost all of it, stands between us.

You came home and got
the flu. You came home
and got the twenties.

You came home and went 
back to Folgers and the milk
man's very best. 

And also, you didn't 
know it yet, your sons
would go back.